Re: AW: Hanford Site cleanup standards

[John Jacobus <crispy_bird@YAHOO.COM>]

I think that if look at history, worker health and

safety is always an unrecognized factor until it is

pulled into the spotlight.  It was Upton Sinclair's

book "The Jungle" the forced the public's attention to

the terrible conditions in the meat packing industry

at the beginning of the 20th century.  It is no

question to me that the implementation of radiation

safety has been a leading rather than following

program.



--- RuthWeiner@AOL.COM wrote:

> 

> 

> The interest in workers only appears to be "sudden"

> because this is one of the few times it has come up

> on RADSAFE.  My own very active interest dates back

> to 1954, when I was a laboratory technician in a

> tomato canning plant one summer, and the other

> technician and I tried to improve the working

> conditions of the (mostly) women on the canning

> line. Most HPs are exceedingly interested in worker

> safety because that is where the exposures are, and

> having worked with a number of unions (Steelworkers,

> UAW) I recognize that this is also true for

> hazardous chemical exposure. I am also sure I am not

> the only RADSAFER who has ever worked on an assembly

> line.

> 

> Re the "hazards of new technology" and

> "responsibility for environmental damage":  consider

> the incredible environmental damage wrought, for

> example, by automobile and truck use, as compared

> with light or heavy rail use.  Should (or could) the

> early developers of the internal combustion engine

> have foreseen that?  Did anyone think about the

> Celilo Falls fishry when Grand Coulee dam was built

> ("roll on, Columbia, roll on")?

> 

> As has been pointed out on RADSAFE, the AEC did far

> more to prevent health damage than most similar

> large heavy industries have done when they started

> up.  I remember well when NEPA and the 1970 Clean

> Air Act were written and enacted, and how strongly

> they were opposed by the various U. S. industries. 

> I heard a speaker at the 1969 meeting of the

> American Mining Congress say that heavy industry had

> always been free to release its wastes into

> America's air and water, and would continue to do

> so. OSHA was enacted in 1970. By contrast, the

> Atomic Energy Act was quite a bit ahead of its time

> with its health protection clauses.

> 

>  

> Finally, we have yet to see any adverse PUBLIC

> health effects from any of the DOE sites, including

> Hanford.

> 





=====

-- John

John Jacobus, MS

Certified Health Physicist

e-mail:  crispy_bird@yahoo.com



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